Shi Erli spread his hands. "You've all seen Xu Yi's temper. Do you think he's the sort to listen to reason? There's nothing I can do."
Lord Bai Ye snorted. "Master Shi, you're nowhere near as ruthless as your friend. If it were him, he'd have demanded Gong Xian's twelve gambling dens outright."
Shi Erli's old face flushed. He cursed himself for being useless. How had he failed to learn even a tenth of that man's shamelessness?
"On an agreed date, Daoist Shi will go and take care of the formalities."
With that, City Lord Huangdan rose into the air. He didn't want to stay here a moment longer.
Watching the three city lords leave, Shi Erli finally couldn't hide his smile. He muttered to himself, "Gong Xian, Gong Xian. After all that winding and turning, those twelve gambling dens still ended up in my hands. You mocked me for preaching righteousness, but you never knew you'd die because of your own unrighteousness."
After leaving Shi Erli, Xu Yi headed straight back. He delivered two thousand first-grade beast cores to Black-striped Flood Dragon Shark. Old Sha, usually a man of few words, turned into a chatterbox, pestering him all the way.
In the end, Xu Yi simply abandoned him and flew back to Lu Huo's Beast Mansion.
When Lu Huo saw his long-lost blood kin, tears of emotion streamed down his face. Xu Yi had only just said, "I won't disturb your family reunion," when Lu Huo grabbed him. "And those dozens of gourds of spirit wine you owe me!"
Xu Yi was instantly speechless. "At a time like this, shouldn't you be embracing and weeping together? Why bring up spirit wine?"
Lu Huo said, "You don't have to agree. How about this: I'll give you this little fellow,